Lessons from the Inside

AWTT Education Director Connie Carter reflects on her conversation with Maine State Prison inmates.

Moral Beauty and Reframing AWTT

It’s interesting how a simple well-put phrase can open our understanding,  become a key to unlock a room of thoughts and feelings we didn’t even know we had. I hadn’t thought of Americans Who Tell the Truth as being in the awe business. Definitely inspiration, but not awe. Then Betty Burkes sent me a link […]

Eating an Apple on Earth Day, April 22, 2023

Before taking my border collie Chummi for a walk in the woods here in Maine in the waning, gentle afternoon light on Earth Day, I decided to have a small snack – having not eaten since breakfast. Gail had filled the fridge’s crisper with a whole bough’s profligacy of Granny Smith apples. What a gorgeous […]

Reflections on the Life of Rob McCall

Rob McCall died this morning – not unexpectedly. He had been failing for some time. His passing is a great loss to his community in Blue Hill, Maine. Also to the world. I painted his portrait five years ago, and at the unveiling of it in the Blue Hill library, with Rob there, I said,  […]

Sacrifice Zones, Kids & Money

Not too many years ago, if I heard the term “sacrifice zone,” I thought it might refer to an area where rebellious people were executed, a place where a totalitarian state or group of fanatical fundamentalists lined its victims up against a wall. Or I envisioned an altar where a goat or a girl was killed […]

20th Anniversary of the Attack on Iraq

Artist Robert Shetterly reflects on why we choose to ignore our country’s war crimes, including the 2003 attack on Iraq.

Truth & Vengeance

In the late 1960s, when I was a college student, I went to a teach-in at the Brattle Theater just off Harvard Square. It was 1967, I think, in the winter, at night, standing room only. The speakers were activist writer Noam Chomsky from MIT, historian Howard Zinn from BU, and psychologist and writer Dr. […]

Dorothy, Samantha, Claudette, Barbara and Jaysa on the Yellow Brick Road

One of the great adventures in literature and myth is that of the Hero’s Journey. A  person – in fairy tales it’s often a young prince, but really anyone – young or old, male or female, LGBTQ, of any race or ethnicity, sets out on a quest. The quest may be to rescue someone in […]

Children as Teachers

Artist Robert Shetterly reflects on what he learned from the Dr. Weeks Elementary School in Syracuse.

Thoughts after the Symphony

AWTT Education Director Connie Carter relates a recent AWTT book signing event to he afternoon at the symphony.